An album I had ready to go, but with no time to post before the big day. The highly talented and hard-working kids from E.T.H.S. return, this time from on or about 1971, with terrific choral singing and band work, and... if only a more competent engineer had been at the helm. Augh. The sound is hideous in spots--EQ'd into absurdity, with upper-end distortion that didn't have to be. You'll know which spots I'm talking about when they come up--and I did my best to neutralize the audio overload in question. This had to be post-session doodling by someone who went nuts with an equalizer, and I wish said person had not tried to "improve" the sound in this fashion, since, whatever the shortcomings of the unprocessed audio, it had to have sounded better than this. One can't even be sure that the choral numbers which dominate this set (11 out of 13) are in stereo or... what. Whoever mangled this sound should have been banned for life from any recording studio. The two band tracks sound way better than the rest, with real-sounding fidelity and genuine stereo, so what the heck happened to the singing portion? Despite this, the choral sides are well worth hearing because they are so very well done, and because it's a joy to hear high school students operating--and operating well--on this level. And what cool gatefold-cover photos on the inside--they take me back, since they're only four years before my high school graduation (I was either in eighth grade or just starting h.s.--I have trouble calculating such things). And scanning those sections was such fun (not). Working rightside-up is tricky enough when you're scanning an over-sized item, and with the inner portions of a gatefold cover, you're sort of working upside down. My first attempts were not so hot--they were either missing portions or else the results looked like Picasso when drunk--I don't remember which. But it was great to finally get it right. None of this will make sense if you've never done photo-stitching. It may not make sense even if you have!
Terrific high school musicianship, a lovely stock front and back jacket, an inner-gatefold montage that takes me back (this is close to my era), and it's all worth a listen despite the engineer's inept work. Was he having revenge on someone? Anyway... Merry Christmas in the holiday afterglow:
DOWNLOAD: The Christmas Album--Evan Township High School Music Dept., c. 1971
Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment